Flying still safest way to travel – IATA

Flying remains the safest way to travel and the airline industry has been constantly upgrading its systems to make air travel more safer because “any accident is one too many,” the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said.

“People should be re-assured that flying remains the safest way to travel. Any accident is one too many,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and Chief Executive Officer.

“People can take further confidence in the well-established and constant determination of the aviation industry and governments to make this safe industry even safer,” he said

The airline industry has been hit be several tragedies lately, including the disappearance of a plane in March last year between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing and another shot down over Ukraine last July. Hundreds of people were killed.

An airbus with 162 passengers disappeared while flying to Singapore from Indonesia recently and lately a Germanwings flight crashed with 150 people aboard.

Tyler said about nine million people board aircrafts every day and “we work as hard as possible to earn and keep their trust by transporting them safely to their destination.”

“We are closely following developments in the investigation of the Germanwings 9525 tragedy,” he said.

“Words cannot adequately express the sorrow that we all feel. Our thoughts are with the friends and families of all those involved in this unthinkable tragedy,” Tyler said.

He said airlines comply with safety regulations and procedures, which includes procedures regarding cockpit access and, through experience and sharing of best practices, many companies exceed those requirements with their own policies.

Tyler said thorough accident investigation is a pillar of the industry’s safety performance and complete understanding of the causes of any accident helps the aviation industry to constantly improve its operations.

Strengthened security measures
Agence France-Presse has reported that one of the two pilots of the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps was locked out of the cockpit before the plane went down.

Under strengthened security measures introduced after the September 11, 2001 hijackings and attacks, authorization to open a cockpit door can only come from inside and from a pilot.

For the Philippines, local carriers said that they complied with cockpit safety regulations as mandated by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and with the international safety regulators.

AirAsia Philippines’ Chief Executive Officer, Joy Cañeba said: “There are no changes in our regulations as we’ve been practicing that two persons should always be in the flight deck…in case the pilot/co-pilot is out one of the cabin crew should be inside to assist or open the door etc…we also practice serving different set of meals for the pilot and co-pilot.”

Cebu Pacific in a statement said:”CEB complies with the safety standards and regulations of Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP). CEB’s policy requires that there are two members of the flight operating crew in the flight deck at all times.”

“CEB has been implementing this policy for over a year. CEB’s standard requirements for all applicant pilots, include a medical certificate issued by a CAAP licensed Aviation Medical Examiner and psyhological screening prior to employment.”

Philippine Airlines said it complies with cockpit safety regulations as mandated by local (CAAP) and international safety regulators (EU, FAA) but it could not “divulge our current flight deck safety procedures.”